Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-03
THE FLYING YEARS.
A Right and Wrong Way of Measur-
ing Earthly Existence--Toward
What Destiny are You Tending7
In This World We Rey Up the Harp OF
Rapture, or Forge the Chain OF o
BOndase-Duiies We Owe.
We Should Measure Life by the Amount
OF Good we can dO-The Only Bright
View of Life and Death.
THE TABERNACLE SERMON.

BROOKLYN, n. Y, Jan. 2.-This morn
ing a. the tabernacle the Rev. 7. Dewitt
Talmage, d. D., expounded some passa-
ges of scripture concerning the longevity
of the patriarchs. He gave out the hymn
beginning:
My days are gliding swiftly by,
And l. pilgrim st anger,
Would not detain them as they fly,
Those hours of toll and danger.
His text was Genesis Xviii, 8: Chow
old art thou?" The preacher said:
The Egyptian capital was the focus of
the worlds wealth. In ships and barges,
there had been brought to it
from India frankincense, and
cinnamon, and ivory, and diamonds;
from the North, marble and iron; from
Syris, purple and silk; from Greece, some
of the finest horses of the world, and
some of the most brilliant chariots; and
from all the earth that which could pest
please the eye, and charm the ear, and
crafty the taste. There were temples
afiamc with red sandstone, entered by
the gateways that were guarded by pillars
bewildering with hieroglyphics, and
wound with brazen serpents, and adorned
with winged creatures-their eyes, and
beaks, and pinions glittering with prec-
ioUS stones. There were marble columns
blooming into white flower beds; there
were stone pillars at the top bursting
INTO the shape of the lotus when in full
bloom. Along the avenues, lined with
sphinx, and fame, and obelisk, there were
princes who came in gorgeOusly uphol-
stored palanquin, carried by servants in
scarlet, Or elsewhere drawn by vehicles,
the snow white horses, golden-bitted, and
ak abreast
DASHING AT FULL RUN.
There Were fountains from stone
wreathei vases climbing the ladders OF the
light. You would heav bolt shove. and
a door OF brass would open like flash of
the sun. The surrounding gardens were
saturated with odors that mou ted the
terrace, and dripped from the arUors,
and burned their Incense in the Egyptian
noon. Ga floors OF mosaic the glories of
Pharoan were spelled out in letters of
porphyry, beryl and fl me. There were
ornaments twisted from the wood of
tamarisk, embossed with silver breaking
into foam. There were foot-stools made
out of a single precious stone. There
were beds fashioned out of a crOuched
lion in bronze. fhere were chairs spot
ted with the sleek hides of leop6rds.
There were sofas footed with the claws of
wild beasts, and armed with the beaks of
,aefdS. As you stand on the level beach
of the sea on summer day, and look
either way, and there are miles of break
ers, white with the ocean foam, dashing
shoreward; so it seemed as if the sea of
the worlds pOmp and wealth in the
Egyptian capitol for miles and miles flung
itself up into white breakers of marble
temple, mausoleum, and o5elisk.
1t was to this capitol and the palace of
Pharaoh, that J4cob, the plain shepherd,
came to meet his son Joseph, who had
become prime minister in the royal apart
ment. P aroah and Jacob meet dignity
and rusticity, the gracefulness of the
court and the plain manners of the field
The king wanting to make the old country
man at ease, and seeing how white his
beard is snd how feeble his step, looks
familiarly into his face, and says to the
aged man: Glow old art thou?"
Night before last the gate of eternity
opened to let in, amid the great throng of
departed centuries. the soul of the dying
year. Under the twelfth stroke of the
brazen hammer of the city clock, the
patriarch fell dead, and the stars
of the night were the funeral torches. 1t
is most fortunate that on this road of life
there are so many milestones on which
we can read just how fast we are going
toward the journeys end. l feel that it
is not au inappropriate question that |
ask to-day, when ook into your faces,
and say, as Pharaoh did TO Jacob. the
patriarch:
CHOW OLDD ART THou?"
People who are truthful on every other
subiec', lie about their ages, so that do
not solicit from you any literal response
to the question / nave asked | would
put no one under temptation; but |
simply want, this morning, to see by
what rod 1t is we are measuring our
earthly existence. There is rioht way
and a wrong way of measuring door, or
8 wall, or an arch, or a tower, and SO
there is right way end wrong way of
measuring our earthly existence. Il is
with reference to this higher meaning
that | confront you this morning with
the stupendous question of the text,
and ask How old at thouf"
There are many who estimate their life
by mere worldly qualification. When
Lord Dundss was wished q happy New
Year, he said: alt will have to De- a hap
pier year than the past, for hadn't one
happy moment in all the twelve months
that have gone" But that has not been
the experience of most of US. We have
found that though the world is blasted
with sln, it is q very bright and beautiful
place to reside in. We have had joys in
Vulnerable. There is no hostility between
the Gospel and the merriments and the
festivities of life. l do not think that we
fully enough appreciate the worldly
pleasures God gives US. When you re-
count your enjoyments, you do not go
far enough back. Why do you not go |
back to the time when you were an infant
III your mothers arms, looking up
into the heaven of her smile; to
those days when you filled the house with |
the uproar of boisterou- merriment; when |
you shouted as You pitched the ball on |
he playground; when, on the cold, sharp, |
winter night, muffi ID up, on skates you |
shot out over the resounding ice of the |
pond? Have you forgotten
ALL THOSE GOOD DAYS
that the Lord gave you? Weie you never |
boy? We're you never girl? Between
those times and this how many mer-
cies, how many kindnesses the L 'rd has
bestowed upon you. How many Joys |
have breathed up to you firm the flow
ers, AID shOne down to you from the
stars, and chanted 10 you with the voice
.,J